Lidl cuts rapid charging to 59p and invests £10m

The supermarket says the investment will include around 100 additional rapid chargers at existing stores during the current financial year, with a focus on locations that do not currently offer charging. It also plans to install rapid charging at the majority of newly built stores. Around one third of Lidl GB stores currently provide rapid EV charging.

Loyalty pricing creates a large gap between two tariffs

Drivers using Lidl Plus pay 59p/kWh for rapid charging, while Lidl states that its standard rapid tariff is 74p/kWh. The 15p/kWh difference makes the loyalty app part of the charging proposition rather than simply a supermarket rewards add-on.

Lidl promotes an annual saving of about £529 for regular users, but that is not a measured customer saving. Its calculation is based on an assumed market average of 80p/kWh and a stated saving of around £4.41 per charging session. Actual savings will depend on the driver’s charging volume, alternatives available locally and how often the Lidl Plus tariff is used.

Lidl controls both the hardware estate and the retail offer

The ownership model makes the announcement more significant than a routine CPO tariff promotion. Lidl says it owns its charge points outright, unlike supermarket arrangements where parking space is made available to an independent charging operator.

Direct ownership gives the retailer greater control over where capital is deployed, how charging is integrated with the store and how prices interact with the wider customer relationship. The 59p/kWh rate sits within a retail-loyalty model: the charging asset can support store visits and Lidl Plus engagement as well as generate charging revenue in its own right.

The utilisation figure is useful but remains a retailer estimate

Lidl says electricity delivered through its chargers in the previous year was sufficient for 49.1 million miles of electric driving. That is a company-reported conversion rather than independently audited charger utilisation data and does not reveal the underlying kWh delivered, sessions per charger or utilisation by site.